Mantashe ‘ignored’ spy report on Guptas’ influence
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe ignored advice from top spy bosses that he should request an intelligence report on the Gupta family’s state influence from the inspector-general of intelligence.
This is according to former senior government officials who said they met Mantashe and advised him to approach the inspector-general to get hold of a report that had been compiled in 2010.
The report is said to detail how the Guptas influenced the appointment of ministers and the awarding of government tenders.
This week, Mantashe told journalists after an ANC national executive committee meeting that his investigation into alleged “state capture” by the Guptas had proved fruitless as only one party member of the eight who appeared before him had sent a written submission.
The Sunday Times has learnt that Mantashe had hoped his investigation would be given more time, but President Jacob Zuma’s backers within the ANC NEC pushed for the matter to be closed.
Mantashe was mandated by the NEC to conduct the investigation after Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas revealed that the Gupta brothers had offered him the finance minister’s job while one of the previous incumbents, Nhlanhla Nene, was still in office.
Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor claimed the Gupta family had also offered her a cabinet post, and a former government communications chief, Themba Maseko, accused the brothers of trying to influence him to award them government business.
Mantashe’s announcement this week triggered an angry response from one ANC alliance partner, the South African Communist Party, which called his investigation a whitewash.
Now, former spy bosses are saying Mantashe ignored their advice, which could have assisted his investigation.
“At least one representative of the heads of intelligence did meet with Mantashe. But the dilemma was that you can’t give an intelligence documentation to the ANC: you will be charged with revealing state secrets,” said an intelligence insider.
“We advised as to how that process can be achieved by just approaching the inspector-general. We don’t know if that advice was followed up at all.”
The Sunday Times understands that the eight people who met Mantashe included Jonas, Mentor, Maseko, former South African Revenue Service boss Ivan Pillay, suspended Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert
Intelligence report compiled in 2010 is said to detail how the Guptas influence tenders
McBride and former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat.
Only Maseko made a written submission.
National Treasury sources revealed that Jonas received legal advice not to make any written submission as there was no guarantee he would be legally protected.
Sources said the same advice was given to Pillay, Dramat and McBride.
Pillay declined to comment and McBride denied that his meeting with Mantashe was about the Guptas.
SACP deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila, the first alliance leader to raise the issue of the Gupta influence in a formal ANC meeting, called Mantashe’s investigation “the shoddiest job”.
He said he had written to Mantashe to indicate his willingness to take part in his individual capacity but was rebuffed as there was already participation in the process by the SACP as an organisation.
Mapaila said the process was flawed as it did not guarantee “whistle-blowers” any legal protection.
“[Another] problem was that as the matter was being attended to, the president attacks it in public, and says, ‘This thing does not exist’.
“In doing so he differed with the views of his own movement, which were largely generated by his political report in the alliance summit that he convened.”
That meeting had addressed the matter of state capture, said Mapaila, but the problem arose when “we added the Guptas. If we’re talking about monopoly capital as a problem, he would agree.”
Mantashe declined to comment. .